-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Could search crews be just a few hundred feet from solving a mystery that has riveted millions for 76 years ?

That 's the question raised by tantalizing evidence published this week by teams trying to find out what happened to famed aviator Amelia Earhart , who vanished along with navigator Fred Noonan during a doomed attempt to fly around the world in 1937 .

Yet that evidence has been met with skepticism in some quarters .

Debate about the mystery gained new currency this week after researchers publicized images recorded by search teams scanning the ocean floor nearly a year ago near Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific .

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery raised the prospect of a big break in the case by publishing an image online . It showed something -- hard for the layman to size up -- on the ocean floor .

The group said , `` It 's the right size , it 's the right shape and it 's in the right place . ''

Could it really be a piece of Earhart 's Lockheed Electra plane ?

Louise Foudray , caretaker and historian of the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchison , Kansas , chose her words carefully on Friday afternoon .

`` We do n't want to shrug off the hard work anyone is doing . We do like the idea that people are still interested , '' she said . `` But we 're skeptical . ''

Opinion : Will mystery of Earhart be solved ?

She said there have been other theories that have emerged . One is that Earhart 's plane was forced down by the Japanese around the Marshall Islands . Another is that Earhart secretly returned to the United States and the government gave her a new identity .

There are people out there who buy those theories . But in reality , Foudray said , `` no one has yet to come up with anything conclusive . ''

It was n't until March that one analyst made a possible connection to Earhart in an online forum for the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery .

The group said experts have offered various interpretations . Some think the sonar image could be a man-made object , and others say it could be a geologic feature .

Earhart : The evidence we almost lost

`` So did -LRB- last summer 's -RRB- expedition actually succeed in locating the wreckage of the world 's most famous missing airplane ? Or is this sonar target just a coral rock or ridge ? '' the organization says on its website . `` Of course we 're not going to know until we can get back out there , but until then the anomaly is worth close study . ''

Richard Fredricks , executive director of the American Salvage Association , a trade group , said that `` almost anything is possible '' these days with advanced technology . And that includes locating a lost airplane .

He cited technology such as side-scan sonar and magnetometers but said finding a lost plane such as the Earhart craft is `` more a function of funding than technology . '' Money is needed to invest in expeditions , he said . The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery on its website is asking for contributions to continue its work .

Foudray said she 's heard all of the evidence and nothing solid has risen to the surface . And that includes the latest foray into the South Pacific deep .

`` We do n't expect anything , '' she said .

Photo may be key to finding what happened to aviator

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A grainy sonar image has been spotted , an aircraft recovery group says

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Historian at Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum skeptical of anything conclusive showing up

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Technology today is advanced enough to locate a plane , a trade association official says